An exploration of the 1897 Red River Valley League with teams from Fargo, Grand Forks, Moorhead, and Wahpeton-Breckenridge. The league featured future major league players, local heroes, reckless characters, economic unrest, and spirited rivalries.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Another Fargo Major Leaguer? - Some Detective Work

Though not directly relevant to the 1897 Red River Valley League season, the July 14thForum gave readers an update on a player named Sexton, who had played in Fargo as Wilson the summer before. Sexton was now playing
left field for the New Bedford, Massachusetts team of the New England League and was reported to be “batting like a fiend.” After a short trip over to the indispensable www.baseball-reference.com, I discovered that the 1897
New Bedford, MA team did feature a player named Frank Sexton, who had played in
1895 in the National League for the Boston Beaneaters. To confirm that Sexton and Wilson were indeed the same person, I had to determine when and where Sexton played during the summer of 1896. Sporting News articles
show Sexton playing in late June 1896 for a team in Springfield, Massachusetts. Sexton disappears from the Springfield box scores after that,
which corresponds to the appearance of a Wilson playing for Fargo, who first
appeared in late July 1896. The story seems to check out that another major
leaguer likely played in Fargo in 1896.